Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Hidden Wrongs and "The Essential American Soul"?

While news of the Pope's rather aptly timed resignation has knocked the issue covered in this post out of the headlines , I'll not replace my original theme because it's an issue closer to home and one which ought not to be sidelined.

There is, anyway, an element of hidden wrongs in both the Pope story and the issue brought up below.

As a commenter wrote under Saturday's post, current astrological configurations and transits make it a time ripe for the "outing" of many hidden wrongs. Saturn now transits Scorpio, Pluto transits Capricorn in mutual reception: Saturn is Capricorn's ruler, Pluto is Scorpio's ruler - this serves as a kind of underlining of all that the signs and planets represent to astrologers. Saturn and Capricorn = the establishment, institutions, law. Pluto and Scorpio = secrets, darkness, matters relating to sex and passion, death, the cleansing and transformation of areas where there is decay. The Roman Catholic hierarchy, especially this Pope, both now and before his elevation to Head of the R C Church, have been instrumental in keeping hidden rampant sexual abuse of children by their priests on a worldwide scale. The situation, and astrological time, is ripe for exposure and eventual transformation in areas related to old institutions such as the R C Church and to governmental bodies.

So.....back to my original theme:
Glenn Greenwald wrote last week in The Guardian, on the release of the "assassination white paper" a legal memo from the Obama Department of Justice seeking to justify the assassination of US citizens (not to mention unfortunate murders of non-American citizens) :
The most extremist power any political leader can assert is the power to target his own citizens for execution without any charges or due process, far from any battlefield..............If you believe the president has the power to order US citizens executed far from any battlefield with no charges or trial, then it's truly hard to conceive of any asserted power you would find objectionable.
And yet, according to The Hill's poll based on a nationwide survey of 1,000 likely voters conducted on Feb. 7 by Pulse Opinion Research (Note: Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research) ~~
.................of the 1,000 Americans polled (a bipartisan group of likely voters) most were "inclined to support the government in its lethal attacks on citizens and non-citizens it deems to be terrorists."
And continues:
The poll found that 53 percent of likely voters said it should be legal for the U.S. government to kill non-U.S. citizens who meet that description. Meanwhile, 44 percent said it should be legal for the U.S. government to kill American citizens who it believes are terrorists and present an imminent threat.

By contrast, 21 percent of respondents thought such an action should be illegal if the target is a non-U.S. citizen. A slightly higher percentage of voters, 31 percent, thought killing individuals whom the government believes are terrorists should be illegal when the target is an American citizen.

A significant proportion of respondents — 26 percent and 24 percent, respectively — said they were not sure if such attacks should be legal, regardless of whether the target was an American or not.

When asked whether they oppose or back the administration’s drone program, however, a significantly higher percentage of voters voiced their support. Sixty-five percent of respondents said they support the use of unmanned drones to kill “people in foreign countries whom the US government says are terrorists and present an imminent threat,” while just 19 percent of voters said they oppose the policy.

Is that poll trustworthy though? Isn't it possible that questions were skewed in such a way as to obtain a desired result - desired by those paying this polling company, who needed to have the public "persuaded"? The company conducting the poll is in business, making $$$$$$$$, their aim is not necessarily factual enlightenment of the public. People reading, tweeting and Facebooking this poll's results will likely be thinking/writing along the lines of "Look at this all of you doubters! You're wrong! You're extremists and you're anti-American.... see here how many people think it's okay!" Brainwashing par excellence! And the very reason why The Powers That Be (or those behind 'em) are so keen to have control over the Internet. They already have control of TV, yes both Fox and MSNBC - and the rest!

Well-meaning commenters often blame "US voters" or the ignorance of US citizens generally for the dire straits in which the US finds itself morally. Democracy here has been corrupted though, at least in the case of national elections. Voting does nothing but put a rubber stamp on something already designed by the oligarchs - the power behind the curtain. There is no real choice in national elections. US Citizens have, through passivity, apathy, fear or simple misunderstanding allowed things to go rotten, but this has been over a long period of time, more decades than are covered by this present generation of citizens. That, though, is no excuse for continued sleepy passivity and apathy going forward.

The only alternative to that "excuse" for the position of citizens of the USA on the issue involved here would have to be this, as written by D.H. Lawrence in his Studies in Classic American Literature:
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted.
There are, I'm certain, many, many - perhaps the majority of citizens of the USA who have never killed a fellow-human, or even a fellow-creature of Earth, and yet, if these citizens are willing to stand by without protest and allow their democracy to crumble, allow unjust killings to be carried out in their name....then, I'm sorry to say they really are killers by default. The idea that all's fair in love and war doesn't wash here. There is no declared war. The so-called War on Terror isn't a war - there is no Theatre of War, no battlefield. War on Terror has been nothing short of an excuse. An excuse to continue the attacks and occupations originally being retaliation to the attacks on the World Trade Centre on 11 September 2001.

Peter G. Cohen wrote, concluding his piece CIA Drone Killings Don’t Make Us Safer:
Finally, we must face the fact that many nations are now acquiring drones and some are arming them. If they follow our example, we are creating an international situation in which any nation can kill people in other nations whom they dislike. By destroying the restraints of law, we are encouraging a lawless age. This is a terrible heritage to pass on to our children. Remember, you may not be able to see or hear the drone that is aiming a missile at your home. The smart way to handle drones right now is to pass national and international laws forbidding the use of armed drones away from a battlefield.

6 comments:

mike said...

My opinion of the Church is that it should never have had its day under the sun. It has proven itself to have been one of the greatest tools of human control and hindrance, as well as providing the means for egregious crimes.

As I've stated in comments prior, I find it incredulous that the killing of U.S.-born Anwar al-Awlaki by purposeful drone strike is causing the current outrage. Where was the concern when the Patriot Act was approved, then later expanded and extended multiple times?! The Patriot Act gave broad, undefined power to Bush to do anything...Obama inherited and expanded this power. At least Obama decided to put it on paper! IF THE PUBLIC IS TRULY CONCERNED, THEN BE CONCERNED ENOUGH TO CANCEL THE PATRIOT ACT and return to the US Constitution!!!

This current public criticism for the killing of U.S.-born Anwar al-Awlaki is made possible ONLY because the Obama administration announced the assassination when it occurred. Please note that due to the provisions of the Patriot Act, American citizens may have been killed by our military prior or post Anwar al-Awlaki. There is no provision in the Patriot Act requiring the president to provide public disclosure.

Of course, in previous presidential administrations, nefarious doings were performed, but either hidden or our government purchased foreign agents to achieve these goals. Similar to the way Bush out-sourced prisoners and conducted torture...if the American laws prevent this activity, then pay to have the same services provided on foreign soil. This is why Guantanamo Naval Base, Cuba, exists today! What hypocrisy! Many ways to skin the same legal cat, as is said.

Regarding the accuracy of the polling results concerning drone strikes and killing of American nationals...I do believe them. I never underestimate the desire of Americans to feel secure regardless of the means. Simply look at the hoopla over gun control...it seems unbelievable to me that Americans feel safer proportional to the number of assault weapons and ammunition at their disposal.

I liken the drone approval rating as killing of animals for food. Most Americans would not eat meat if they had to personally perform the killing and cleaning. But have the same animals killed for the consumer, pre-cleaned and neatly packaged, and sure. Sanitize the act of killing to a base level of "ingredient for a recipe".

Twilight said...

mike ~

1. Agreed on the Church, especially the Roman Catholic (original) branch of it, from which all others were spawned.

2. Re Patriot Act - but the public isn't concerned. They were/are either brainwashed deeply and thoroughly enough to think it's "A Good Thing" or fascist enough at heart (though few would admit it) to think the same. No matter which way they vote.

3. The Anwar al-Awlaki part of the equation is just the visible tip of an iceberg in my opinion.

4. I don't doubt that nefarious doings have been going on under the covers for a long time, by many administrations. Now that current doings have come under a spotlight, all the more reason for more Americans to step up and object - unless, of course they approve - and so it seems they do!
and D.H. Lawrence was correct.

5. Yes, the paranoia in the USA about "feeling secure" would be laughable if it were not so serious. The seeds of future insecurity are being sown daily in their name!

6. Sanitized killing - indeed - good description in your final para, Mike.

Sonny G said...

I always learn something when I read a post here..
I thank both You and Mike

Twilight said...

Sonny ~~ I'm so pleased - and you're very welcome! :-)

DC said...

this reminds me of a pattern that has existed for a long time now. Initially the pattern was evident in illegal corporate shenanigans implemented by those in charge and affecting either the consumer or public in general. The corporations often began or committed an illegal act (often well aware of it's illegality) almost always for profit,and then of course either hoped the ones affected either did nothing, or prepared itself for an often long and drawn out court battle, litigating every step of the way to what almost always ended up as a watered down series of "punishments" the the corporations involved. This long after the money was made and the harm was done.
Nowadays.....and for quite a while now also, it's the gov't that has followed the tracks of the pattern replicating this form of "kill em all and let God sort em out" type of approach. "God" in this context being the courts. Sure....in many cases the courts find the a fore mentioned activities "illegal" in one sense or another. Only after which the corporation (or in this case the gov't)re-groups, counts their cash (or bodies)and revel in the new knowledge acquired and new techniques learned by this practice of circumventing the law (which they often do over and over in one form or another)thanks to the lumbering and often sublimely corrupt Federal American justice system.
You see by the time an illegal behavior is deemed "officially" illegal, the money is already made and the damage long done.
My point is that now ,I at least, am seeing this "kill em all and let God sort em out" pattern being more and more implored by the US government in the context of warfare, often in the guise of a war on "terror". I recognized it more obviously since the first (Papa) Bush administration but of course it surely was an emerging pattern long before.

Twilight said...

DC ~~ Though I've not been here long enough to detect the pattern you describe for myself, I can appreciate how well it works - and "what a good plan" the Powers That Be think they have discovered.

When it was only for money (damn the results) it would have been bad enough, but when human lives are involved it's sheer unadorned evil.

Again, all I can add:
Karma...there's that.